No Avengers In Iron Man 3, But It's Not A "Serious" Movie

While the first full trailer for Iron Man 3 received a mostly positive response from fans, it also seemed to imply that the third film in the series would have a slightly darker tone than the previous two, what with all the ominous curling smoke, Tony’s traumatised opening monologue, and of course the numerous devastating explosions.

Producer Kevin Feige and director Shane Black have both stepped in to assuage fears that the Iron Man franchise might be heading in the direction of “moody for moodiness’ sake”. In an interview with The West Australian (spotted by ComingSoon), Feige characterised the film’s nature as simply ‘different’ to what we’ve been before.

It’s not a serious movie, but we seriously dig into exploring more of Tony. The trick is just trying to make great movies. We try to make them all great, all different and all fresh. What you’ll see in Iron Man 3 is some very unique directions that were taken.

‘Different’ and ‘fresh’ must have been the big words up on the whiteboard during development, because Black’s description of the Iron Man 3‘s plot goes along the same lines.

We’re not aiming for bigger, necessarily. We’re aiming for different and fresh and new. It’s all about capturing that lightning-in-a-bottle feel, about trying to get as much into this as we can. We’re looking to get a ton of thrills into a short space, to make a nice little stew for you.

This interview gives me a good feeling about the threequel. Often the third act of a franchise is spent simply trying to one-up what’s been done in the previous two films, shoving the stakes up into the stratosphere and edging into melodrama and overkill.

Theories that the rest of the Avengers will drop in for cameos have been quelled in an as-yet unreleased interview with Empire magazine, which has been quoted extensively over at Comic Book Movie. Those of you who were hoping for a continuation of the Stark-Banner bromance will no doubt be saddened by this news. Here it is, from the mouth of Feige:

Iron Man 3 doesn’t feature any of the other Avengers, or Nick Fury showing up, or any of those world-blending conceits that the Phase One films had. You have to keep in mind that Iron Man 3 had been in the works for almost a year, year and a half before The Avengers was released. We’re sticking to the vision for these films, and showing once again that these characters are just as interesting alone as they are together.

Feige has also said that they’ve taken “risks” with Iron Man 3, arguing that the original decision to cast Robert Downey Jr. in the role was a risk that paid off very well.

For a closer look at what you might have missed in the trailer, why not read one of Brendon’s incredibly long, frighteningly obsessive frame-by-frame analyses that he makes when he has too much time on his hands. Which is always.